We’ve been looking at the reality of an activist homosexual strategy to change society in the series Is There a Gay Agenda?, and in particular the 1989 homosexual publication After the Ball from Madsen and Kirk. What have been the results of this movement in our society? Consider the following letter to the editor sent to the Charlotte Observer on February 21st, 2007 protesting the use of the Booth Playhouse for the lecture series Homosexuality, the Church, and Society:

Why rent Blumenthal for gay-bashing talks?

The writer is associate professor, UNC Charlotte Department of Dance and Theatre.

In response to “Group plans lecture series to protest gay-lesbian fundraiser” (Feb. 16):

So the Performing Arts Center has decided to rent space in the Booth Playhouse to conservative Christians who want to counter the “homosexual agenda.” Can we soon expect Klan Kapers and Holocaust-deniers Hoedowns?

Would someone please ask the Arts & Science Council why these uptown theaters are empty and thus available for hate groups? Why has local theater never received ASC support on a par with dance, opera and the symphony? This bloated organization is more concerned with perpetuating itself with fund drives than with fostering arts groups that could fill these theaters.

Are the theaters empty also because the Observer continues to marginalize theater and arts coverage? The most theater coverage in recent years has been your misinformed pursuit of scandal at the late Charlotte Rep.

How can Dr. Brown, a full-blooded Jew who has written extensively against Anti-Semitism, be compared to KKK members and Holocaust-deniers simply for discussing these issues? Consider the following look at how these moral associations have become so ingrained in our corporate psyche, with a look at the letter in question:

Be aware that much of the wider culture considers anyone that believes homosexuality is sinful to be a bigot… and thus we have lost the debate before it has even begun! We need to redefine the discussion in our generation, armed with the facts and a humble Christ-like character, that we might be able to submit a different voice into the cultural landscape of ideas.

A May 30, 2008 article in The Advocate, the oldest continuing gay publication in the U.S., recounts a recent event at Los Angeles’s Academy of Television Arts and Sciences entitled LGBT: Above and Below the Line in Prime, which looked at how the representation of gays in television has changed. Though they proclaim that “Over the past three decades or so, queer representation on TV has been minimal and mocking at best (as opposed to the early years of TV, when we were completely nonexistent)” and that “there’s a long way to go”, they conclude with the following statement:

The evening was certainly not a bad way to spend a couple hours as well as an encouraging reminder that queer visibility on the small screen is increasing in positive ways — not just on Showtime and HBO, but ABC and the other mainstream networks. A growing number of programs feature one or two queer characters seamlessly woven into the series.

Seamlessly woven? Lock in on those words, they are very important. How has something that was shocking 30 years ago become something that goes virtually unnoticed on prime-time TV? Read more of this article »

We’re all products of our environment. That which we consider right or wrong, true or false, good or bad, is to a large extent a result of what we’ve been led to believe by our surrounding culture. When we hear stories about how North Korea’s residents are inundated with false propaganda from their government about cannibalistic Americans, or how many Palestinian children grow up with the understanding that Jews are apes and pigs, we tend to feel a comfortable distance from those worlds. After all, ours is a free society that embraces differing viewpoints, surely we would never allow such propaganda to be perpetuated here in America!

The reality is, however, that our perceptions are being shaped just as much here in the West, albeit in a more subtle fashion. While it may seem that as we grow and mature we are given the tools to think critically and the freedom to believe what we want, we are to a large extent not only taught HOW to think, but also WHAT to think… Read more of this article »